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Dwarf Fortress is a single-player fantasy game. You can control a dwarven outpost or an adventurer in a randomly generated, persistent world. The worlds are generated using a very intense and detailed procedural process that involves mapping, erosion, history, etc.

Your challenge this month is to go over to Bay 12 Games: Dwarf Fortress and download Dwarf Fortress. You must then install it, and use it to generate a world in ascii. This ascii map can be saved as an image from Dwarf Fortress and you must use this map as a starting point to create your own artistic interpretation. You may use any of the custom parameters Dwarf Fortress allows for generating a unique world, and you may incorporate any of the actual elements from the Dwarf Fortress game that you wish.

Try not to get addicted to Dwarf Fortress until after your challenge entry is completed!

All entries should be started in a new thread titled April Challenge Entry - <name of your entry>. This challenge will close on or around the 29th of April followed by a period of voting. All work in progress thumbs must include a ### Latest WIP ### tag.

Additionally, I'd like to draw your attention to the small box at the bottom of the map legend's page, particularly the Advanced Word Generation. There's a wealth of information and tools to massage the type of world map you get, if you're inclined to learn to use it.

And Toady (the creator of Dwarf Fortress) linked this thread from the dev log, so I reckon you might be seeing a bit of new traffic in this thread, though I'd not be surprised if most folks are more interested in the finished products than anything else.

I am a Dwarf Fortress player, and can not wait to see some of the awesome stuff created by this community. Dwarf Fortress is very indepth on many levels, and not simply the map itself, but also the game play aspect as well. The type of stone, minerals and ores you find is very accuratly represented. For example, you will find obsidian near volcanoes. A qoute from the DF wiki, "The geology and stones of Dwarf Fortress are based on real-world geology and mineralogy. To understand the terms used here, you may want to crack open a geology textbook (a high school one should suffice). If you don't happen to have one close by, the Wikipedia articles for geology, mineralogy, or the terms in question might help."

I am so afraid...I just know this is going to suck me back in and I'll end up playing this game all over.....ahhhhhhhh. I'm already worrying about my little dwarves and if those rangers will be safe out there. Can I dig through this wall or will the water come rushing in and drown us all? Oh this one tasks me.

“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

I often recall a statement by Brandon Sanderson when he was asked about how he handled his enjoyment of playing video games. He said, "You have to want to write more than you want to play video games." I too want to make art more than I want to play video games but I do still enjoy a good game now and then. I just have to be careful.

I wonder if it would allowed for one of these fine gamers from Bay 12's forums who already has a world going and would like to see said world come to cartographic life, to post an image here that one might use for the basis of this challenge? That way I'm not in as much danger

“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden